Riverdale Street car wash plan OK'd by board

WEST SPRINGFIELD - F.L. Roberts Inc. is planning to open a fourth car wash in this city.

This one is located at the Mobil station at 1130 Riverdale St.

The Zoning Board of Appeals on Monday approved a special permit for an expansion of an already existing car wash on the site.

Joseph P. Pandolfo, of Pandolfo Company Inc. of Burlington, represented F.L. Roberts, which bought the site in December. Roberts paid Mobil Oil Corp. nearly $1.2 million for the property, according to the city Assessors' Web site.

Pandolfo told the board that the current car wash, with dimensions of 18 feet by 36 feet, is too small for current technology. Roberts is proposing to either tear down the current building and build a new car wash that will be three feet wider and 12 feet longer than the current building.

If the current structure is sound, then Roberts will tear out the equipment and add on to the current building to house new car wash equipment, Pandolfo said.

Even with the addition, the structures will cover only a little more than 12 percent of the site. The Business A zone permits up to 90 percent of the site to be taken up by the structures. The site also contains a gas station and convenience store, which will continue to operate, he said.

Pandolfo also said the project meets all the conditions of a special permit. For one, the Business A zone is capable of handling high-volume traffic. There will be no change of use of the site, so the impact will not change, he said. The existing car wash meets the city's setback requirements, and the new one will, too, he said.

The air, water and noise impacts actually will be lessened, Pandolfo said. The newer car wash technology is more efficient and quieter.

Planning Director Richard A. Werbiskis said the project needs a special permit to move forward because the current city zoning ordinance considers a gas station and car wash to be two separate entities. Previously, a car wash was an accessory to a gas station, but there are many free-standing car washes now, Werbiskis noted.

Zoning Board Chairwoman Lisa M. Beauvais asked if the hours of operation of the car wash would change.

The car wash will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The current car wash is open from 5:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.

There is a 20-day appeal period before Roberts can start construction, which should take between four to five weeks to complete, Pandolfo said. The car wash will be a one bay, drive through operation.

F.L. Roberts owns three other car washes, all affiliated with Sunoco gas stations, on Memorial Avenue, Westfield Street, and just down the road from the proposed new location on Riverdale Street, according to the company's Web site.